This week the Colombian city of Bucaramanga
began experimenting with its first “women-only” night, an effort launched by
the state governor’s office to stem a tide of sexual assaults against women. Is
there a workable, partial solution here for dealing with violence against women
in other cities, even in America?
As reported at Vice.com, bars and
clubs in Bucaramanga are being encouraged to host women-only events on this
evening. Men out after the curfew (it’s unclear exactly what the curfew time
is) must present a safe-conduct permit issued by the mayor's office or be fined
(also unclear: what’s to prevent someone with a safe-conduct permit from
committing sexual assault?).
Bucaramanga – with a population of just
under 600,000 – is no small village. It’s hard to imagine how such a curfew
could be enforced effectively; and indeed, Juan Camilo Beltrán, president of
the city’s Chamber of Commerce and a proponent of the curfew, said that it is
essentially symbolic. “We can only hope men accept the challenge [to stay at home],”
he said, making the curfew seem more like a plea than a law.
Its real purpose is largely as an
awareness-raising tool and a means to drive discussion about the issue of
sexual assaults in a city apparently plagued by them. But similar curfews have been
attempted elsewhere, including the Colombian capital Bogota, and so far none
has made a noticeable difference in preventing sexual violence. As Suzanne
Clisby, the director of postgraduate studies at Hull University's School of
Social Sciences, puts it,
The best a formal
curfew could hope to do is send a message from the state that violence against
women is seen as unacceptable and will be taken seriously, but unless this were
followed through in a whole range of other ways, it is fairly pointless.
A men-only curfew could never, and
should never, be implemented in a free society like the United States. First of
all, it infringes on the freedom of half the population, the vast majority of
whom are not sex criminals. Second, even if it does keep some bad men off the
street at night, it also clears the street of far more good men who might be able to prevent sexual assaults by their mere
presence, if not through actual intervention. And again, it would quite simply
be impossible to enforce effectively.
Another down side: since sexual
assaults are usually perpetrated not by strangers in nightclub alleys but at
home or the workplace by men known to the victims, Clisby warns that such
curfews “could perpetuate the myth that violence against women happens only at
night by strangers.”
Alison Phipps, director of gender
studies at the University of Sussex, argues that awareness isn’t enough – moral
education is necessary: “The message we need to convey is that men need to
behave differently, rather than women and men being separated—in whatever
way—for women's protection.” Clisby concurs – or at least seems to, in academic,
gender studies jargon:
We need to look at
and challenge the ways boys can be gendered into particular forms of hegemonic
masculinities that can be damaging for themselves, as well as for women and
other people around them. Also, we need to look at the ways girls may learn
normative constructions of femininities that can leave them vulnerable to
sexual exploitation.
If these women are saying that men
need to be taught not to rape, we already
do that, which is one reason I insist that we don’t live in a “rape
culture.” Rapists commit their crimes not because they’re unaware it’s wrong
and a heinous crime, but in spite of our society’s clear condemnation of it.
If, by complaining that “normative
constructions of femininities… leave [women] vulnerable to sexual
exploitation,” Clisby is saying women need to learn to defend themselves (and I
doubt she is), then I couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly. However, suggesting
self-defense gets one irrationally condemned these days as being “pro-rape” by those
who think the answer is not to empower women but to “gender boys out of their hegemonic
masculinities.”
A curfew is not the answer, even as
a teachable moment. Sex criminals will always be with us. If you want women to
be less vulnerable, teach them to fight back. If you want men to behave more
honorably toward women and further marginalize the rapists, teach boys chivalry,
a male code of behavior that radical feminism has driven from our culture. Don’t
“gender” boys out of their masculinity – encourage them to exemplify the best
of it.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 10/15/14)